Chifley Dam Ride 30th May 2024

-

Thursday Ride to Chifley Dam.



This week the Thursday Riders met at Maccas McGraths Hill. It was a chilly but sunny autumn morning. There were 17 starters and no new riders to the group. It was a nice ride along Bells Line of Road however there were three lots of road works where we had to wait for a Pilot Escort to continue. To avoid some traffic lights in Lithgow where the group usually gets split up, we turned left into Eskbank Street but missed turning right into Bent Street to make our way across to the Great Western Hwy via the Lithgow Small Arms Factory and Museum, however the corner marking kept the group together so we arrived at Bowenfels Olivers and Shell Service Centre together.

Morning tea was had outdoors in front of Olivers. I was happy I got a small cappuccino and the best Lamington for only five bucks at the Shell Foodery. After morning tea four riders left the group to make their way back to attend to other things. The ride from Bowenfels took us to Tarana and past the O’Connell pub left onto Beaconsfield Road across to The Lagoon to Chifley Dam. The dam which was named after train driver Ben Chifley from Bathurst and former Labor Prime Minister from 1945 to 1949. Chifley Dam is Bathurst’s Water Supply and has holiday cabins and a small camping area. It is open to water recreational activities including fishing for Cod, Redfin Perch, Trout and native Golden Perch and works well as a ride destination although it’s been suggested that perhaps a 9.30am start from Maccas McGraths Hill might work better next time.

Lunch was had under the shelters on the water’s edge and after lots of chatter about this and that I announced a different, shorter and quicker way back to the Great Western Hwy, there could be some dirt I exclaimed but I wasn’t sure so if you want to risk it follow me. As it turned out there was about 3 kms of good dirt road on Wambool Road. I thought it was worth it and a good run back to the highway coming out at the intersection of Timber Ridge Road and the Great Western Hwy west of Mount Lambie.

We got split up as we made our way through the slow traffic in Blackheath mainly because of the 40 kph School Zone and a policeman standing on the footpath pointing a Lazer Gun in our direction didn’t help. Most of us opted to use the highway back because of the roadworks on the Bell Road but then there is major roadworks at Medlow Bath luckily, we got through without stopping. Four of us stopped at Mountain Pies Wentworth Falls for a break. It was about 380 kms for me for the day and I arrived home at 5.00pm. Thanks everyone who came on the ride and TEC Mark in the high vis vest.

David

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bathurst Ride 13th Mar 2025

-
Image
  The ride this week was to Mount Panorama, Bathurst. It was amazing after all the inclement weather over the past week, rain, storms and cyclones that we were blessed with a nice day. The Good Lord must have been looking over us all because it was a perfect day for a long ride. Well, my bike says 372 kms round trip arriving home before   5 o’clock .   We had 15 bikes leave Maccas at McGraths Hill at the earlier starting time of  9.30am .  Except for a short stop for roadworks and a slow moving little white Kia that kept flashing its brake lights at every shadow it was a good run along the Bells Line of Road with the temperature at 22 degrees at Bilpin.  After morning tea at the Service Centre at Bowenfels Kim and Peter left to return home because of other commitments but we picked up two more riders Rob and Andy who were caught up in heavy traffic and missed the earlier start meeting point.  It was  12.45pm  by the time we arrived at the top...
Read more

Ulysses Motorcycle Social Club

-
Image
  Welcome to the Northern Beaches Branch of Ulysses. To contact the group and subscribe or unsubscribe to our newsletter please use the Contact Form available under the pull down menu. To comment on items you will need to be signed in using a google or gmail account. You can add our ride calendar into your calendar by subscribing to it from your calendar app
Read more

Bulga Ride 19th June 2025

-
  Thursday 19th June, my turn as ride leader   Destination - Bulga - via the Putty Rd    The morning was pretty cold - 7 to 8 degrees on my bikes temperature display, some dew on the grass alongside the road edge, but Dry road, sun trying to appear, and no wind.   We had a starting crew of 14 riders at Macca's Mcgraths Hill, no virgins, a couple of riders from the Hills group. For the ride we had 3 riders on Kawasaki 1000, watch out BMW riders.   The Bulga ride is head north, stopping at Greygums for smoko, then onto Bulga. Minor road works near the end of the twist bits - repairing road subsidence It was a good fast ride - nil corner making and TEC nearly always in sight.   At Bulga, we lunched in the parked, servo closed no fuel, later we were joined by 3 riders who had started from Berowra, they arrived as we left, one of those riders was Danny - there to celebrate his 28th birthday - but as Ste...
Read more

Frazer Beach Ride 8th December 2022

-
Image
  Thank you to the weather gods for a near perfect summer riding day. Not too hot, no rain and a breeze to keep us comfortable in all the gear.   We had two new Dave’s riding with us today so they were given an obligatory dose of the clap. One on a VStrom and the other on a Harley but sadly only one made it to morning tea. We also lost the dromosagnosian Danny at the same time 🙁   So here’s the thing, apparently the new corner marking system, whilst very effective, needs a couple more tweaks to go with the TEC not waiting for latecomers to refuel.   The Leader has an obligation to pick a spot for the corner marker that is safe, gives enough warning to the ride group AND    is very visible. The Marker has an obligation to mark the corner as and where requested, with indicator and arm signals to the ride group and not randomly decide to turn into the corner, stop in the shade where they are hard to see, side on so ...
Read more

Dungog Loop Ride 17th November 2022

-
  It was a beautiful sunny if cool day for a ride to Dungog. I picked up my trusty GS from Procycles, Hornsby after they had replaced my front and rear wheels following an incident with a giant pothole on the Hume Highway south of Seymour on 13th October. I haven’t ridden since then so I was itching to go. The only problem with the bike was the left turn indicator didn’t work so I would have to revert to the old hand signals. There were sixteen other riders at the Seven-Eleven Berowra also itching to go including a virgin, Jeremy, on a hotted up Royal Enfield. He proudly told us that he drags it and did the quarter mile in 13.7 seconds hitting a speed of 101 mph. So I told him he might JUST be able to keep up with us. The route I planned was Old road to Calga then continue on same road to Somersby where we would take the M1 to the Wyong exit. After that it was The Triangle, Hue Hue road, Wyee road, Freemans Drive to Freemans Water Hole for morning tea. We set off on...
Read more